Organisation Communiste Libertarie (OCL) - Courant Alternatif, CA #234 - Workers in China and in Chinese factories on the outskirts of the EU by ocl-lyon (fr)

On the occasion of the publication in the journal Movement Exchanges and a brochure China 
landed in the EU: Chinese Investments and operating conditions for production "Made in 
Europe" (1) a discussion of the struggles Chinese workers was recently held in Paris. It 
was introduced by Ralf, who teaches Chinese for ten years and lives to a great extent in 
China. ---- Ralf is part of a small network of European, American and Chinese whose main 
activity is to meet the people there, and then put on the Internet 
(http://www.gongchao.org ) the results of their investigations ( through texts mostly in 
English) and translate Chinese books. But they also do the opposite, providing Chinese 
translation of information on workers' struggles around the world - a choice justified by 
their belief that the struggles in China have a crucial impact on the world situation.

His intervention consists of three parts: first, a look at Foxconn, then a more general 
presentation of current struggles in China and the reactions of the State and bosses, and 
finally an overview of the penetration of Chinese capital in Europe East (eg Foxconn has 
production sites in the Czech Republic and Slovakia). He concluded his presentation on a 
strike that took place in a Chinese factory in Poland.

Foxconn

Our starting point is the sad situation of 2010, when dozens of employees at Foxconn 
committed suicide by jumping from high buildings. Faced with this resistance of despair, 
political activists begin an investigation into the conditions under which the company 
will result in a book iSlaves Pun Ngai. My presentation is based largely on this item (not 
translated into French).

Foxconn has recently become the largest in the world by number of employees Industry 
group: 1.5 million, including 1.4 million in China. Some sites have a workforce of more 
than 100,000. It is estimated that Foxconn manufactures 40-50% of all consumer electronics 
products in the world and 40% of its production is for Apple. Foxconn also has plants in 
Brazil, the Czech Republic. This is however a little known name as the group does not sell 
products under its own label. This is the contract manufacturing, outsourcing system that 
has existed for forty or fifty years, also in the textile and footwear, which is practiced 
throughout Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. On conditions in Chinese factories 
group is essentially the line work extremely Taylorized, consisting of simple, repetitive 
tasks. This is shift work, with two teams working noon to turn. A distinctive feature is 
that the workers are controlled and monitored constantly and see impose sanctions, usually 
fines, when they fail to keep pace. Almost all are migrants from other regions and most 
are between sixteen and twenty-five years. Indeed, older workers are so worn (visual or 
muscular problems) they are returning or leave themselves. Surprisingly, men represent 60% 
of the workforce. Traditionally, most workers in the electronics sector are women, but the 
shortage of labor which develops from a decade eventually push Foxconn to recruit more 
men. Remuneration depends on the region, but range between 160 and 280 euros per month. 
The work in these factories can be dangerous, and accidents and occupational diseases 
abound. Like other Chinese companies, Foxconn does his best to avoid paying compensation 
for accidents and diseases. And like their European counterparts, Chinese companies 
seeking to divide workers into distinct groups. Foxconn uses student interns, hiring eg 
whole class technical school. It's supposed to be a trainer, but in reality trainees 
perform the same work as the rest of the staff. Due to the current shortage of labor, the 
state supports this practice.

Most Foxconn workers are housed in dormitories, usually located on the same grounds of the 
factory or just beyond. The dorm is a kind of extension of the factory, where management 
can go at any time to ask workers to work overtime. Another purpose of the system 
dormitories are prohibited Chinese migrants to settle permanently in the city. As South 
Africans under apartheid workers or migrant workers in Europe, they have a temporary visa 
and need a work permit. Losing a job is lost at the same time his work permit and housing. 
Again, state and capital work together to ensure that workers remain usable. On the one 
hand, it enables companies to charge very low wages - workers do not need a big budget for 
housing and food (there are canteens) - and the park as a breeding pigs. On the other 
hand, social reproduction is outsourced, as children and the elderly remain in the 
village. It is therefore a reproducing mode cheaper.

Chinese workers obviously are struggling to find adequate forms of struggle, but, like 
their counterparts around the world, they succeed. There are three major forms of 
resistance. 1) Many workers simply resign. If this is the least effective form of 
struggle, it should however be noted that some sites Foxconn experiences an annual 
turnover of 100% of their workforce. Finding work is not currently a major problem for 
workers, given the shortage of labor. 2) There are daily resistance, such as beaded strike 
or sabotage, which are of great importance. Contrary to popular belief that courses abroad 
on disciplined behavior and subjected workers - and especially workers - in China, they 
are lots of ways to curb the production and gain a little dignity. 3) Finally, and most 
interestingly, it is the collective struggles as strikes or riots. We do know that part, 
because Foxconn does not publish figures in this field. Three examples should give you a 
better idea. In Wuhan, workers climbed on the roof of the factory threatened to jump into 
the void. They obviously do not intend to put their threat into execution, it was just a 
ploy to raise public pressure on the company and thereby obtain higher wages. They are not 
the only ones to have done. There is even now a term for this form of struggle: the Jump 
from the building show (or "Directed jump from the roof").

Our second example is a riot in Taiyuan (Shanxi), caused by an assault by security guards 
of the factory, a common phenomenon around the world ... Workers arrived at the time of 
shift change have thrown their turn in the fight, first against the security guards, then 
against the police. The dormitories are located on the same site, which employs 80,000 
employees and has streets and shops. It's like a full-fledged city. Our third example 
concerns a strike last year in a factory producing iPhones. Following complaints from U.S. 
customers who found scratches and scuffs on all new phones, leaders pressured staff for 
product quality improves. The workers' response was to physically assault those 
responsible for quality control and then strike.


Social resistance in China and strategy of the State


There is a rise of social resistance for twenty years, with a marked acceleration over the 
past eight years. Hundreds of thousands of incidents are due not only to workers but also 
farmers and other actors include. Let us first recall that all these struggles illegal. 
When I ask the Chinese how to translate in their language "wildcat strike", they have no 
expression to nominate since there is no strike that is not wild at home. Then, it should 
be noted that all these hard struggles are conducted in the absence of any official 
representative organization. The Communist Party does not authorize the establishment of 
independent associations, which requires workers to fight on their own.

Reveal three parallel developments for three years: the rise of social struggles, the 
emergence of a new topic, given the participation of migrants transforming the quality of 
struggles. Previous struggles were mainly defensive types (against plant closures or pay 
below the standard), while the latest have a more offensive (to get higher wages and 
better conditions). No wonder these three developments: in other parts of the world, 
industrialization produced over two hundred years of similar phenomena, with the 
constitution whenever a new working class. Think of the United States in the early 
twentieth century Europe after the Second World War, and even South Korea more recently. 
Then, there is a significant change in Chinese migrants. The first generation in the 
1990s, little was combative: the goal was to win fast money and return to the village. 
Those of the second generation in the 2000s, who were better informed (by their elders), 
wanted to stay in town and have more information at their disposal. Today, a third 
generation of migrants is being formed. Like most people in third generation in the world, 
those of China have no desire to work in a factory. They aspire to get an office job, 
learn computers, etc.. Alas, they do not succeed and end up factory in poorly paid jobs. 
Some spend a few months at Foxconn, before returning ras-le-bol.

How do they react capital and the state? Punishment is inevitable under the dictatorship 
and police state. Yet, the state is forced to deal with a certain level of control. 
Workers who are mere participants do not suffer penalties, while those identified as 
leaders are usually returned. In addition, incarceration is the fate of anyone trying to 
set up an independent organization. But, in parallel, the state has established over the 
past twenty years a number of social laws with a view to channeling struggles. He tends to 
play an active role as a mediator in order to calm the workers.

Trade unions are a separate folder. China has allegedly the world's biggest trade union, 
but it is entirely dependent on the Communist Party. Bureaucrats are either officers or 
employees paid by a company, so that most of the workers perceive the union as a component 
of management. It is therefore not really work as unions in other countries. This poses 
problems for employers, because they are without mediation bodies or sources of 
information about what is happening on the ground. One could even argue that China is like 
a laboratory where the state capital and have no means of intervention.

Some in the party and the union are aware of the problem and looking for solutions. They 
seem particularly fond of visiting German union officials to explain their operation of 
business and co-management committees. During one of these meetings that were invited 
figures of IG Metall, I had the greatest difficulty in control when they told me how a 
union can avoid strikes. However, stifle any independent trade union activity remains the 
dominant line in the Chinese PC.

One consequence of the struggles is that the monthly salaries are rising sharply for five 
or six years, around 15% per year. The state plays a major role because it sets the 
minimum wage by region. Every year, so it remains the official minimum and most companies 
apply. But, because of regional differences, wages in western countries can be 50% lower 
in those who are paid on the coast. This explains why Chinese companies tend to relocate 
their production to the West, following the pattern found elsewhere in the world.


Chinese companies in Eastern Europe


The oldest sites Foxconn in China were in the delta of the Pearl River or Shanghai, then 
they have relocated factories inward. The good news is that the struggles followed the 
movements of the group to new sites. The three examples I have presented all took place in 
newer plants, from relocation. But Foxconn also implements abroad, Czech Republic, 
Slovakia. Moreover, other Chinese companies do the same, partly in order to expand their 
presence in the world. The Eastern Europe attracts because of low wages, but also because 
it is an entry in the EU door.

In the Czech Republic, Foxconn has two sites with a total of 10 000 employees who produce 
laptops and servers. As in China, the work is done under high surveillance, with strict 
hierarchies, sanctions and fines. Surprisingly, many of the group of Czech workers work 
twelve hours straight, but unlike the Chinese, they are entitled to a break after a few 
days. Another difference is that Foxconn do not apply the same policy to recruit migrants 
and precarious. Fifty per cent of workers are Czech or Slovak and have a permanent 
contract, the others being temporary originating mainly from Asia or poorer countries of 
Eastern Europe. In the latter category, there is a higher proportion of women. In 
Slovakia, the group has a production unit TV screens and monitors he bought Sony in 2010. 
He continues to produce the same flat Sony screens before, but now as its subcontractor. 
Given the strict immigration policy in Slovakia, all employees are Slovak - mostly women 
who commute daily between their village and the factory. With regard to employees, 
considering the Eastern as a whole, there are similar to those that exist in China 
deviations. The Czech Republic that wages are higher: employees hired on fixed earning 
between 600 and 650 euros per month - against 150 euros in Macedonia and Bulgaria. But as 
the price level is a little lower than in China, the wage gap with Eastern Europe is not 
as great as before.

Foxconn factories in the East experienced the struggles of low intensity, but no major 
strikes. There is absolutely not the same balance of power in China, which has a shortage 
of labor, strong economic growth and thus a relatively favorable situation for workers. In 
much of Eastern Europe, which are conditions of crisis, with the deindustrialization then 
re-industrialization and high unemployment ...

To understand the balance of power and control options, I would like to mention another 
case, this time on a Chinese factory, Chung Hong Electronics, located in a special 
economic zone in Poland, the only EU country to have such areas. Most date back to the 
late 1990s - early 2000s, when they were established to attract foreign investment in the 
electronics, automotive, etc.. The plant in question, located near Wroc?aw, was built by 
the Korean company LG to produce flat-screen TVs. LG has pushed all its subcontractors to 
also settle in the area. Workers produce motherboards for Chinese society Chung Hong. 
These, mostly women, want to get in control and have therefore turned to several unions, 
including Solidarity, who refused to help. They made contact with a small 
anarcho-syndicalist union gave them the means to develop their own structure. I spend half 
my time in Poland, which has allowed me to work with the anarcho-syndicalists in this 
case. Tragically, the workers lost because they had underestimated the determination of 
their Chinese bosses, who did not hesitate to turn all the strikers.

"We are not machines. "It's the same slogan in Chinese Foxconn workers and strikers in 
Hong Chung Poland. Polish workers liken China to capitalism - the bosses! In a meeting, so 
I told them the experience of Chinese workers in struggle and this information has 
transformed their vision of China. In conclusion, I would like to emphasize the importance 
for all of us to understand that there is real movement there, that Chinese workers are 
neither competitors nor simply poor victims.

(Thanks to SouBis for these notes.)

(1) To order, contact: Trade and Movement, BP 241, 75866 Paris cedex 18.